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Her heart dropped. No suitcases in sight. The beds had been made, obviously by housekeeping yesterday. They had not been slept in.
She ran into the bathroom. Nothing but a few half-used bottles of hotel shampoo and lotion. Everything else was gone.
What on Earth?
“Looks like they left, ma’am,” the security guy said.
“But they didn’t. The clerk said they didn’t check out.”
“Then they didn’t check out but they left anyway. It happens.”
“You don’t understand. They’re booked here for five more days. For the rodeo.”
“I guess they decided to go home.”
“But they would have told me.” She plunked down on one of the beds. “This isn’t good. This isn’t good at all. Something is definitely wrong.”
“I wish I could help you, but I need to get this room closed back up. I’ll need to notify the front desk. They may have skipped out on their bill.”
“They didn’t,” Sydney said, her head in her hands. “They prepaid for the rodeo. Oh my God.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am. I don’t know what else to say.”
“It’s all right. Just go.”
“I need to ask you to leave this room.”
“Can I just look around first? See if they might have left something behind? I need to know what’s going on.”
“Okay, you can have ten minutes.”
She used every millisecond of those ten minutes, scouring every millimeter of the room for something—anything—to clue her in on what had happened.
Nothing.
No evidence of any struggle. No evidence of anything at all, except that they were gone.
“Thank you,” she said to the security guy. She walked soberly back to her own room.
She dialed the land line to their home in Carson City. No answer, of course. If they’d driven, they wouldn’t have gotten back there yet. Or maybe they would have if they’d driven all night. Or they could have caught a red-eye flight.
God, now what?
If they flew, the airport would have those records, right? But would she be able to access them?
Where were they?
Visions of a masked gunman taking them hostage tormented her. Perhaps they were bound and gagged at this very moment in the back of a truck somewhere.
Perhaps Duke… Dear Lord, Duke!
Who could help her?
Sam. Sam would help her.
Her skin chilled when a horrible thought crossed her mind.
What if her parents had skipped town with Duke? To keep Sam away from him?
